Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will meet Wycombe social housing providers to discuss the effect of abolishing section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 on innovative housing providers in the Wycombe constituency.

Earlier this year, the government announced its commitment to improve security for renters, and intends to introduce a new, fairer deal for both tenants and landlords.

As part of this new deal, the government has agreed to consult on repealing Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. This would provide tenants with greater security in their homes because landlords would not be able to end a tenancy without a specified reason.

Our consultation, ‘A New Deal for Renting: Resetting the balance of rights and responsibilities between landlords and tenants’ sought views from across the private and social rented sectors on how the new system should operate, including whether the reforms proposed (including the use of section 21 notices) should extend to all users of the Housing Act 1988, including social housing providers. As part of the consultation process my officials met with a number of housing associations, including some who operate in the Wycombe area, and discussed how a more effective system can be developed that works for everybody.

The consultation has now closed and we are carefully considering the more than 20,000 responses received. We will publish our response in due course, setting out how the new system will work and our next steps.